LOS ANGELES, July 12, 2006 ? FX has placed a 13-episode fourth season order for its acclaimed drama series Rescue Me, starring recent Emmy nominee Denis Leary, announced FX Networks President and General Manager John Landgraf.

Leary, Peter Tolan and Jim Serpico will return as executive producers and show runners, and the entire cast has been locked down to return.

The Sony Pictures Television series Rescue Me has seven all new episodes remaining this season with the season three finale airing on Tuesday, August 29th at 10 PM ET/PT. Production of its fourth season is scheduled to begin early next year and it is tentatively slated to launch in the second quarter of 2007.

This year, Leary received his first ever acting Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Last year, Leary and Tolan were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and Tolan was nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. In 2005 the show was honored with the Producers Guild of America?s Visionary Award.

?Rescue Me is a key part of one of FX?s stated goals, which is to foster some of the best episodic series on television,? said Landgraf. ?Denis, Peter, Jim Serpico and all of their colleagues have done an incredible job on season three and the audience and critics responded with continued loyalty and passion. We are enormously proud of this series and of Denis? Emmy nomination for best actor. We can?t wait to see where they take the saga of Truck 62 and the Gavin family for a fourth season.?

Season three of Rescue Me is averaging 2.9 million total viewers, up +10% versus season-to-date last year, and 1.8 million Adults 18-49, up 8% versus last year. Rescue Me?s four-run cume is up +10% among Adults 18-49 (3.5 million) and up +13% among total viewers (5.6 million). The show is equally gender skewed this season (50% male & 50% female), compared to the 55% male 45% female skew the first two seasons.

?I couldn?t be more excited to continue my collaboration with a studio and network who believe in this series as much as I do,? said Leary. ?The entire cast and crew are thrilled to continue working on a show that allows us the creative freedom we couldn?t find anywhere else in television.?

Zack Van Amburg, Co-President, Programming and Production, Sony Pictures Television said, ?The fact that we continue to build an audience in the show?s third season is tremendous. All credit goes to Peter, Denis, Jim & their team, and the incredible group at FX for their unwavering support.?

Rescue Me is one of television?s most critically praised series and one of basic cable?s top-10 shows in delivery of Adults 18-49. The series was created by Denis Leary and Peter Tolan and is produced by Apostle, DreamWorks Television and The Cloudland Company in association with Sony Pictures Television. Executive Producers are Leary, Tolan and Jim Serpico.

Next Tuesday?s episode of Rescue Me Season Three (Tuesday, July 18, 10 PM ET/PT) is titled ?Satisfaction.? Tommy and Franco learn about Jerry?s side job and decide to give him a hard time. Tommy and Angie go to great lengths to make Janet and Johnny jealous. Sean discovers an unusual way to keep Maggie interested in him.

Rescue Me revolves around the lives of the men in a New York City firehouse, the crew of 62 Truck. Examining the fraternal nature and relationships of firefighters, the series tackles the daily drama of the life-and-death situations associated with being a firefighter, while exploring the ways the men use dark humor to protect their true emotions. Rescue Me stars Leary, Michael Lombardi, James McCaffrey, Jack McGee, Steven Pasquale, Andrea Roth, John Scurti, Daniel Sunjata, Callie Thorne and Dean Winters.

Rescue Me was the third original drama series launched by FX, following in the successful lineage of The Shield and Nip/Tuck, both Emmy and Golden Globe� award winning dramas. The Emmy writing nomination for Leary and Tolan marked only the third time ever that a basic cable series has earned nomination for writing ? all three of those noms have gone to pilot episodes of FX series including Shawn Ryan for The Shield (drama) and Mark Cullen and Robb Cullen for Lucky (comedy). Tolan?s Emmy nod for directing is only the third time ever that a basic cable series has earned a nomination for directing ? all three of those nominations also coming from FX with Clark Johnson for the pilot of The Shield and Ryan Murphy for the ?Adele Coffin? episode of Nip/Tuck. FX recently announced the pick-up of its next drama series, Dirt, starring Courtney Cox, scheduled to go into production this fall.

Season two of FX?s award-winning unscripted series 30 Days, from Academy Award� nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, premieres Wednesday, July 26 at 10 PM ET/PT. The fourth season of Nip/Tuck will premiere sometime in early September.

Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry?s leading content providers. SPT produces and distributes top-rated, award-winning programming in every genre, including series, movies and family entertainment for network and cable television; first-run syndicated series; off-network syndicated programs; and theatrical releases. SPT (www.sonypicturestelevision.com) is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company.

FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable network from Fox. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in more than 89 million homes. The diverse schedule includes a growing roster of distinctive original series and films, an established film library with box-office hit movies from 20th Century Fox and other major studios that run in prime time and an impressive lineup of acquired hit series.